Stories of actual events in the creation of new aircraft designs. Explanations of the reasoning behind the airplane configuration arrangement and the modifications required for a successful product.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Jaguar

THE GRUMMAN F10F REAL STORY

I will be writing about the origin of the F10F beginning from the day I first started work at Grumman in November 1950,

I was relatively fresh out of college, having worked a total of about 6 months in the aviation industry.

Grumman then had a total of about 8000 of which 1000 were engineers. The new design work was done in plant 5 which also housed the flight test hanger and manufacturing facilities to build experimental aircraft .

Working in this environment was somewhat overwhelming for the new kid on the block…… but to cap it off, I was introduced to the F10F jaguar.

It was the latest high speed fighter design and I was going to work on it!

The first thing I saw was a 1/10 scale plexiglass transparent model showing the whole airplane including the 4 20mm nose armament.

I was assigned to the wing group as a structural designer and as such became familiar with how the airplane was put together., and that is what I am going to tell you about.

Part 1. Who the players were:

First to put the story into perspective, it may be of interest as to say who the key people were directing this effort.

Some were already legions of their time others who went on to become vice presidents and many like myself who have a few stories to tell.

The project engineer was Gordon Isreal, chief of structures Al Munier and chief aerodynamicist , Joseph Hubert. ( Hubert had come from Messerschmitt where he was the 163 program leader . Other key players included Bob Hall , chief engineer (and former GB racer fame) and not the